Mixing Meatbird and Layer ration together?
I have a slight problem, my hens are only like 7 months old and are obviously not molting (unless they can soft molt at this young), and have lost nearly all of their "butt" fluff feathers.
I think I had a problem when finalizing up my coop I had the roosts too low and before I could let them out in the morning other hens were eating each others asses (literally) when they were roosting which resulted in the featherless butts. Only a few of my hens don't have this, and some of them even are featherless on their back.
I thought about switching them to feather fixer as well as meatbird mix with calcium shell just so they get higher protein.... is this a bad idea? Idk what to do and winter is coming and I really don't want to them freeze their asses off. Some of them it is so bad on their back I'm not sure how long it'll take to gain feathers back. It looks raw in the morning sometimes how bad it is.
Posted Nov 17, 2016, 12:15 AM UTC
I'd stick with feeding the layer ration or feather fixer as their primary food source, but with the addition of lots of extra "treats" like scratch and wet catfood for the extra protein. If you have a reptile supply shop near you, you might also be able to get some live kingworms, which are FULL of protein and good fats. If live bugs aren't an option, dried mealworms work great as well!
It's best to stick with one brand/type of food as the main food source as the nutrients there are already balanced out in the ratio that the birds need. However, since it's getting colder, there's no harm in helping the birds develop a layer of fat and get them some extra feather-growing proteins.
I think the most important issue here would be to fix the roosting issue immediately, as unless it's fixed they'd just rip the new growth off. Also, for the ladies with the bare backs, chicken saddles might help keep the damage to a minimum. Also, if there is any blood, your local feed store probably carries blue-tinted wound dressing like this one! The blue tint would make the raw featherless butt area less appealing to peck at.
The only thing I'm worried about is that even though the days are getting shorter and colder these girls don't quit laying! Their poor bodies are using all the protein for butt nuggets, I addressed the roosting issue a few days ago (figured it out by observation one day lol) and as well as made new nesting boxes to better conserve space and add a little more square footage on the ground inside the coop.
I have a 5 lb bag of mealworms that they get fed very healthy portions of as well as scratch grains in the AM and sometimes pm. I had this problem earlier with my rooster (he lost all his saddle feathers) and it slowly eventually solved itself, however this was in the dead of summer when it happened. I might go ahead and order some of those saddles for the other girls, and maybe switch their feed to a different brand and see how they react. Feather fixed is like 15 bucks for a 40lb bag but I can get later ration for $10/50lb bag and that's why I though since it's winter mix it with meatbird to up the protein and kind of supplement lost calcium with oyster shell. I'm most likely fighting a losing battle trying that but I guess the cheap ass in me just can't justify the 2% extra protein and 5 dollar hike for 10 less lbs. TBH I wouldn't mind if they stopped laying eggs all together either lmao, I hate eggs but love chickens; it's honestly a horrible combo.
Whatever you do I wouldn't go with the meatbird blend of feed, as broiler chickens aren't like "normal" chickens, they are this crazy fast-growing types of chickens that aren't expected to live long anyway, so it's made not really with the bird's health in mind but how to maximize productivity of muscle and size. Layer ration alone would still be better than a meatbird/layer mix, and fairly cheap as well!
And if you don't mind me asking, what do you do with the eggs then? A good way to help them get back some protein without buying extra stuff is to just feed the eggs back to them! It might save you a few bucks in supplements and treats?
I just give them away to people, I fed them back to them once but I just couldn't get past the moral aspect I was feeding them something that came out of their butts 😂. I'll just stick to the layer ration, I understand what you're saying. I raised guinea there for a while so I had some meatbird feed laying around I'll just toss it out then.